Chapter 2399

Chapter 2399

Randidly ripped through the temporal fabric and suddenly several separated timelines crashed together into a messy pile of forces. His outside zone, the middle borderland where the Vulpis Squad and Edraine had been fighting, and also the area above Elhume’s body once more were brought into alignment.

Gusts of wind blasted out from the sudden 'imapcts' but were smothered by an even more ominous presence.

Pine manifested in the sky above Randidly, opening like the mouth of a vengeful god to swallow them all. And then on and on, eating through the entire Nexus without ever experiencing satiation. The dirt beneath their feet began to steadily vanish, scrubbed from existence by the weight of Pine’s shadow.

For a split second, the people in the middle timeline withered underneath the pressure released by Pine. Their images sputtered and shrank. This brave group of soldiers had experienced extremely impressive Nether Core development, but that just meant they weren’t instantly gobbled from existence by that ominous mouth in the sky. They shrunk and hunched their shoulders, their life force stripped from their skin, the emotion sucked out from their bodies by that vast absence that had once been a Shallah.

The hanging conglomeration of Grand Fates left by Devick wavered uncertainly, even their power suppressed by this being.

Guided into place by a beacon of rage, Randidly’s image snapped into existence and extended across them all. He wore a cloak woven from a thousand nights, he was a World Tree that stood up against the forces of the coming apocalypse, he housed an event horizon of his own that released an intoxicating song of annihilation. His eyes blazed as he looked up at the situation Pine and Solomon Rex had created.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Yyrflesh Vessel of Yggdrasil (GD) has grown to Level 1455!

Congratulations! Your Skill The Homunculi Pursues Perfection (GD) has grown to Level 1095!

They primed Pine to the point he would arrive in the Nexus like a wrecking ball. His once-empty emotional sea was filled with choppy and thick waters that spun and spat. Deep, complex currents guided all that potency into destructive whirlpools. Randidly’s eyebrows drew together. They haven’t been trying to prevent a problem; since realizing they could make use of me, they have been making the problem worse so I would have no choice but to help, or all the people in the Nexus to die.

And you thought I would just let this happen?

Randidly’s protection didn’t just cover his immediate subordinates below. He stood between doom and the rest of the Nexus, soaking up the brunt of Pine’s constant need to devour significance. In a way, Randidly did feel responsible; he had liberated the worst and deepest danger from Elhume’s frozen body. Yet after that point, it was the machinations of these two blithe horrors that led to this situation. Do the lives of these people... really mean so little to you...?

Congratulations! Your Skill Yyrflesh Vessel of Yggdrasil (GD) has grown to Level 1481!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nyx’s Successor Births Fate (GD) has grown to Level 1120!

“Is this what you wanted?” Solomon’s voice rose above the dull grinding of reality being stripped away in the presence of Pine’s corpse. “Mutually assured destruction, Randidly Ghosthound?”

“You believe you are so different from us,” Compared to the clarion release of Solomon’s voice, Fiero whispered. But the words carried just as well due to his hissing voice. “And yet, here you are dooming the Nexus in the same way we have. Heh, not only have you stolen the possibility from us, but you are also walking the same Narrow Path to reach the top. Your self-righteousness didn’t amount to much, in the end.”

Randidly pressed his lips together. More and more of his skin began to burn, as he channeled so much of the need of Pine and endured it with his body. His halo or protection channeled all the burden onto himself. Yet this absence too was a sort of ‘Truth’ one of a corpse plucked clean by cosmic horrors and infected with their most destructive impulses.

But exposure would refine his vessel. And then-

Due to Hierarchy of Burden, +4 Homunculi’s Engineered Perfection and Carrion Dragon’s Carapace per Level.

Due to Visage of Obsession, +10 Discretion of the Apostate Moirae, +50 Mana per Level.

Due to Codex Hexahedron, +7 Grim Intuition, +6 Chimeric Indifference, +10 Stamina per Level.

Due to Keystone of the First Ghasthund, +8 Predictive Synapses, +15 Grey Monarch’s Authority.

Pantheon Intervention. Recalculating...

Congratulations! You have reached Level 100 and unlocked the possibility of creating a Grand Fate!

Grand Fates currently available to you: Myth of the Alpha Cosmos is open to you! Randidly Ghosthound, Moirae Chimera is open to you! Temporal Wanderer and Cultivator of Miracles is open to you! Genesis and Cataclysm, the Cycle of a World Tree’s Seasons is open to you!

The Vast and Fleeting Path of the Shallah will soon open to you!

*****

Devick sat on her butt, looking up at the swirling vortex of energy they had helped to consolidate. On either side of her, Lowanna and Enmya were similarly splayed out with their limbs stretched wide. Their exhausted pants were the only noise left in the destroyed valley.

“I cannot believe... truly, how can he contain such darkness?” Enmya huffed out his words.

“All living beings contain multitudes, Enmya. Do not underestimate the complexity of the soul,” Lowanna chided him. Still, she also seemed dazed by their recent experiences. “However... the Ghosthound is uniquely animated by the presence of the Alpha Cosmos. Even I... well, I did not expect this. It is... fascinating.”

Around them, amongst the stretches of broken ground, the fractured bodies of the zombie Randidlys lay like a thousand toys discarded by bored children after they broke from vigorous play. Devick liked their haphazardly sticking limbs, their vacant eyes. It simultaneously filled her with a horrified thrill, to be standing in a graveyard of his negative emotions. Although she hadn’t served the main role, she had fought through his darkness and emerged unscaled.

Devick’s eyes slowly rose and looked at the result of their efforts. The thick and dark energy of Nether smoothed and refined itself to the point it had become a translucent membrane of energy, with a gleaming emerald core sitting in the center. And at the center of the emerald core...

“It looks like an eye,” Devick whispered. Enmya grimaced.

Lowanna gave a slow nod and said. “Indeed. And the balance isn’t fully complete. I would say it currently sits at about 95%; it will still accelerate and stabilize further. And when that happens... Randidly Ghosthound’s Hungry Eye will truly open. He will stand on a new plateau of Nether accomplishment. One not seen for ten thousand years.”